Best Practices for Business Owners to Avoid Fraud

Every business is susceptible to fraud, largely because there are so many different ways that scammers can access an organization’s private information. Cybercriminals often adapt their methods almost as quickly as cybersecurity firms can create new products and services to prevent them from stealing money or data. This makes it nearly impossible to protect against every type of fraudulent attack.

However, there are some measures every business can take to help protect themselves against hackers, cybercriminals and identity thieves—including fraud mitigation solutions offered by Busey. Incorporating a few techniques into your everyday business practices can help minimize your exposure to potential loss due to fraud:

• Check transactions daily. Make sure your business in enrolled in online banking and make checking transactions someone’s daily responsibility. Waiting until a monthly statement arrives allows for too much time to reasonably recover any lost funds, and certain ACH debits only allow a 24-hour dispute time for business accounts. Unlike the extended time frames consumer accounts benefit from the mandated consumer-protection laws, business accounts have a significantly shorter window to dispute unauthorized items related to fraud. Once the 24-hour timeframe elapses, the bank that received the stolen funds has no obligation to return them.
• Question everything. In addition to diligently monitoring your accounts, a heightened level of suspicion goes a long way in preventing fraud. For any changes related to your business banking process, question everything. For example, if a vendor that you’ve worked with for 20 years sends an e-mail stating they’ve changed their banking relationship, leverage that relationship and call the vendor using a known number to verify that the request is valid and ask them to confirm their information. Whether it is a vendor changing their banking information or an unrecognized debit against your account, research the situation and verify the validity. Doing so could save both you and the vendor from fraud.
• Keep IT maintenance up to date. Ensure that your company data is protected by doing regular sweeps of any device that is connected to the internet. Hackers can access vital information and overtake e-mail accounts once they gain access to your systems.
• Add Fraud Mitigation Tools. Help protect your accounts with Busey's Positive Pay Solutions for checks or ACH. Positive Pay provides an efficient and simple way to minimize your vulnerability to fraud by preventing unauthorized checks and ACH transactions from posting against your business account.

Busey offers business owners the assistance and answers they need to keep their business successful and nimble. With solutions designed specifically for your business, our Treasury Management team will analyze your cash flow needs and recommend ways to make the most of your money through automated solutions. You'll feel secure knowing that Busey's behind you.

With Busey’s Check Positive Pay solutions, there are multiple options for business owners to choose from to meet their select needs. From Traditional Positive Pay and Payee Match to Reverse Positive Pay and Check Block, you can add an extra layer of security to your accounts. Our ACH Positive Pay solutions allow you to “authorize” transactions to post and blocks any unauthorized items—and can be done automatically to save you time.

To learn more about Check Positive Pay and ACH Positive Pay, visit busey.com/treasurymanagement.

If you are already a Busey customer, you can contact your Busey Relationship Manager or Treasury Management Specialist with any questions or for additional details on our fraud protection solutions. You can also check out Busey’s Fraud Prevention FAQs in order to learn more about how to protect yourself, your information and your business from fraudulent activity.